Charles Spencer, writing for the Telegraph

Professor Falconer wrote two books in the 1960s detailing his conclusion that Shakespeare was, at one time, a sailor. His Shakespeare & the Sea followed by A Glossary Of Shakespeare’s Sea And Naval Terms Including Gunnery demonstrate the depth of understanding of the nautical world evident in Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets.  Sadly, both books are long out of print and hard to find.

Falconer wrote “It must be stressed, that Shakespeare’s knowledge of seamanship, navigation and the navy is different in kind and in degree from his acquaintance with law, medicine, music and other arts, which is of a general sort and not beyond the reach of one who is highly intelligent and versatile. But here it is professional. He is drawing on a whole body of unified knowledge in the manner of one who understands it from within.”

In addition to being a respected scholar, A.F. Falconer had also served as a Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Navy during World War II. Sir Eric Anderson, former headmaster and provost of Eton, who had been a student of Falconer’s wrote to Spencer, “Again and again during the night watches, Falconer found the words of Shakespeare ringing in his head and began to realise that he had really known what goes on at sea. The accuracy of each reference to the sea and seamanship, and the use of sea imagery in plays that have nothing to do with the sea, convinced him that some part of Shakespeare’s missing years must have been spent as a sailor.”

My Bard hunch holds water

Salvage Operation to Bring the Capsized Costa Concordia to the Surface Begins

The Dragon is taken out of the shipyard, May 16th 2012

Here is an example of a rescue that took place just over a week ago, when the AMVER enrolled Stolt Invention rescued two Finnish sailors from their sailboat, Kamu, which was taking on water after being struck by a whale.  AMVER makes the seas just a bit less dangerous and lonely.

Stolt Invention rescue

ID Integrity Photo: AMSA

Update: The first tug has reached the ID Integrity. As reported by vesseltracker.com: The commercial tug “PT Kotor” rendezvoused with the “ID Integrity” on May 20 at approximately 10:30am AEST. At 11:30am AMSA was advised that the tug had connected a towline to the “ID Integrity” and they were now travelling at slow speed in a south-easterly direction (i.e. way from the Outer Reef) awaiting the arrival of the larger tugs. AMSA’s Emergency Towage Vessel (ETV) “Pacific Responder” was now scheduled to be on scene around 3:00 p.m. Once on scene it will provide assistance as required and remain on station until the third tug, the “PB Leichhardt”, has arrived and has connected a tow line.

High drama on the high seas.  The ID Integrity, a 46,000 DWT bulk carrier, had an engine failure on Friday night while about 325km north-east of Cairns, Australia, on a voyage in ballast, from Shanghai to Townsville.  The ship drifted toward Shark Reef, but the crew was able to discharge sufficient ballast to decrease the ship’s draft to avoid grounding.   A spokesman for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority has now confirmed that the ship has drifted safely over the reef.  The ship is now reported to be in open water drifting west towards Outer Reef.   Emergency tugs have been dispatched. The first is expected to arrive on Sunday morning local time.  Thanks to Phil Leon for passing along the news.

The Little Ships of England

Wrecked Costa Concordia to be raised from Italian sea bed

The operation will be divided into four basic stages, Costa said in its statement.

• First, once the ship has been stabilized, an underwater platform will be built and watertight boxes, or caissons, fixed to the side of the ship that is above water.
• Two cranes fixed to the platform will pull the ship upright, helped by the weight of the caissons, which will be filled with water.
• When the ship is upright, caissons will be fixed to the other side of the hull to stabilize it.
• Finally, the caissons on both sides will be emptied, after the water inside has been purified to protect the marine environment, and filled with air, Costa said.

Once the giant ship has been refloated, it will be towed to an Italian port, probably in Tuscany, to be dismantled and disposed of according to local regulations.  No exact cost was given by the officials who presented details of the recovery operation, but a Costa Cruises representative said that the figure would probably be about $300 million.

At 8:10 AM, 17 international tall ships will depart from the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and proceed north, up the harbor and up the Hudson River to the George Washington Bridge in a magnificent  ”Parade of Sail”.   At 10 AM, a “Military Parade of Ships,” of ten ships, will set off from the  Verrazano Narrows Bridge and head north. They should meet the flotilla of tall ships traveling South around the aircraft carrier Intrepid.

The fleets will then disperse to berths in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island, where they will be open to visitors through the 30th.

OpSail Bringing 17 Tall Ships to New York for Fleet Week 2012

Thanks to Irwin Bryant for contributing to this post.

Aftermath of the Stena Spirit hitting a container gantry crane in the port of Gdynia

It has been a busy couple of days for ship collisions and allisions.  Yesterday, the USS Essex, a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship, collided with the USNS Yukon, a Navy Oiler, during underway replenishment operations about 120 miles off the coast of Southern California. In Poland, the ferry Stena Spirit knocked over a container crane this morning in the port of Gdynia. No deaths were reported in either accident.

The Essex is reported to have had a steering gear failure, precipitating the two ships coming into contact.  Neither ship was seriously damaged, no oil was spilled and no crew was reported hurt. The Essex arrived in San Diego this morning.

Navy Ships Collide Off Southern California Coast

This morning, the Swedish ferry Stena Spirit hit a container gantry crane as it manoeuvred near the dock in the Polish port of Gdynia.  Three workers were reported to be injured but no deaths were reported.  The gantry crane, in the Baltic Container Terminal, collapsed, damaging stacks of containers.   Ironically, only yesterday the terminal had issued a press release announcing the planned purchase of £30m of new equipment to upgrade the facility.  The upgrade may need to be accelerated.

Time for that upgrade! Container terminal earmarked for £30m in new equipment left in disarray as ferry destroys crane 

The contact between the USS Essex and the USNS Yukon was technically a collision, while the Stena Spirit hitting the container cranes was an allision as the ship hit a fixed object.  Whatever one calls it, the impact created quite a mess.

Thanks to Phil Leon and Miroslav at Antic.org fro contributing to this post.

The museum’s Pirates Days on the Embarcadero! will take place on May 19 & 20, 2012.

The festivities sound like fun for the kids.  One can only hope that their parents will explain to them, at some point, that all square rigged ships are not “pirate ships”  and that there is more to nautical history than a Disney log-flume ride and the Johnny Depp movies that the ride inspired.  There is so much that both adults and children can learn from the marvelous ships and exhibits that the museum has to offer, practically none of which has anything whatsoever to do with piracy.

Some argue that “pirate festivals” are gateway drugs to real learning about maritime history. That still strikes me as arguing that Twinkies are gateway drugs to a nutritious diet, but maybe I am being unduly grumpy, again.

For anyone interested in learning about the very real problem of piracy in the present day, they should visit Save Our Seafarers, an international group aimed at eradicating piracy around the world, in particular Somalia-based piracy in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.  Hundreds of seafarers continue to be held hostage by pirates, often under terrible conditions.